The Custom Residential Architects Network (CRAN), a Knowledge Community of The American Institute of Architects, will hold its 7th annual symposium on September 18-20 at the Mills House Wyndham Hotel and Hibernian Hall on Meeting Street in historic Charleston, South Carolina. Entitled ‘The Architecture of Influence,’ the three-day symposium, open to all AIA and non-AIA members, will bring together custom residential architects from across the country to learn, share, and discuss relevant topics in the field of residential architecture.

CRAN is committed to the promotion of high-quality residential architecture irrespective of style.

The Architecture of Influence

About this year's Symposium theme

“The Architecture of Influence” will explore the importance of history and context in the design of new houses, and in particular how the careful consideration of historical architectural styles – both traditional and Modernist – can help architects design houses that contribute to established physical and cultural settings. How a new house or building looks is fundamental to how a community responds to it, and this symposium is intended to encourage an ongoing conversation about what it means to design a good architectural neighbor in the 21st century.

Keynote speaker Andres Duany, FAIA, founding partner of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., will present the talk ‘We Hate Codes, But…’. Andres and his wife, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, founded their practice in 1980, at the time of their design of the town of Seaside, Florida. Since then, their planning practice has over 200 plans in the process of implementation, and has a particular expertise in writing codes. Andres will discuss the role of codes and their use in mitigating mediocrity in architecture.

Keynote speaker Robert A.M. Stern, FAIA, founder and senior partner of RAMSA, will present a history of the planned garden suburb in conjunction with the recent publication of Paradise Planned: The Garden Suburb and the Modern City. The book, which he co-authored along with David Fishman and Jacob Tilove, is the definitive history of the garden suburb from its origins in late-eighteenth-century England to the onset of the Second World War, and suggests how the principles of traditional town planning can inform efforts to remedy fraying urban fabric and suburban sprawl in our own time.

House Tours of local homes will be offered on two separate mornings. Friday morning will feature homes in downtown Charleston. Saturday morning will feature homes of Kiawah Island, including the historic Vanderhorst Plantation.

The CRAN Knowledge Community of The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a resource and voice for architects who focus on a collaborative design process with the homeowner. CRAN provides support, advocacy, and education to the profession and the public in matters of custom residential design.